The Mirror of Night is by far one of the best ways to provide Zagreus, the main character, with a number of buffs that will help the player survive through most Heats of Hades.
While the Mirror of Night isn’t going to be able to carry players through every single Heat in Hades, players are going to want to focus on the Mirror of Night early on, spending as much Darkness as they can before using this resource on other spendings.
When it comes to the Mirror of Night there are some confusing aspects, not only with the descriptions of the passives players can unlock, but also with the options that players have.
This guide will take you through everything you need to know about the Mirror of Night and will hopefully clear up any confusion you have. I will also cover which passives I use to level up, though at the end of the day, many of these passives are going to depend on what play style you have as well as what tasks you’re currently trying to complete.
HOW TO UNLOCK TALENTS THE MIRROR OF NIGHT
The Mirror of Night is unlocked after a player’s first run through Hades whether or not a player actually completes it or not.
At this point players will only have 4 options to upgrade to, though as soon as a player collects a minimum of 300 Darkness players will have access to alternate traits.
Essentially there are two lines for each type of upgrade players can get at the Mirror of Night known as the Red line and Green line.
Upon unlocking the Mirror of Night players will only have access to the Red line and the Green line is unlocked when speaking to Nyx after the 300 Darkness is obtained.
Players will be able to select a single trait from the Red line or Green line for each skill line available to them and will not be able to use both lines at the same time, though players will be able to freely swap between the two as long as they have enough Darkness to fuel both skills.
Players will be able to quickly rotate between the skills in the Mirror of Night by toggling them in the Mirror of Night. At first I strongly suggest that players path out which upgrades they want as Darkness is going to be a rough resource to obtain at first, though as players collect enough Darkness it would be a good idea to level up both lines unless players never expect to use a skill.
I LEVELLED UP THE WRONG TALENT IN THE MIRROR OF NIGHT WHAT DO I DO?
Due to the fact that the Mirror of Night isn’t the most straight forward aspect of the game there are going to be situations where a player levels up the wrong skill or a skill that they didn’t actually want to use. Luckily for players, they will be able to reset all of their Darkness by trading in a Chthonic Key.
At first Chthonic Keys will be a rare find, especially if players are focusing on collecting Boons to advance through their first clear of Hades, however, players should not be fearful about rerolling their stats as long as they have all of the passives unlocked, before this I recommend keeping all of your Chthonic Keys to unlock further passives.
ALL TALENTS FROM THE MIRROR OF NIGHT
As mentioned there are two lines of Talents players will be able to unlock while playing Hades being the Red line and Green Line.
To properly dissect the Talents available to players I’m going to be categorizing them based on their cost of Chthonic Keys and will covering the Red Talents first and then the Green Talent that correlates to the red one immediately after.
Players will be able to freely rotate between these two Talents as they please though it should be noted that they will not share the same upgrade levels.
TALENTS AVAILABLE FROM THE START
The following are the Talents that are available to players as soon as they unlock the Mirror of Night. As a friendly reminder, the Green path will not be available until players collect 300 Darkness and speak to Nyx.
SHADOW PRESENCE
When players have acquired Shadow Presence each rank will give players 10% damage when they strike foes from behind.
Admittedly Shadow Presence is going to be a good upgrade to get in the long term, especially if players get used to Backstabbing enemies in the later rounds.
I would strongly recommend focusing on Shadow Presence, especially if you are building to have a reliable passive for the end game. However, if you’re a player who never gets the hang of striking enemies from behind, or finds it overwhelming do not fret using Fiery Presence instead.
There are 5 Ranks of Shadow Presence, meaning that players can deal a maximum of 50% damage to enemies from behind. Each rank will cost the following:
Rank 1: 10 Darkness
Rank 2: 15 Darkness
Rank 3: 20 Darkness
Rank 4: 25 Darkness
Rank 5: 30 Darkness
Total Cost: 100 Darkness
FIERY PRESENCE
Fiery Presence is by far the best upgrade for players if they are completing runs in order to grind Artifacts.
With Fiery Presence players will deal 15% damage for every rank to undamaged foes. While this doesn’t actually add a whole lot of damage to enemies in the long run, if players are repeating easier Heats this will solidify a one-shot to make your run a lot faster, making Artifact grinding a lot more manageable.
Players could used Fiery Presence in the end-game, especially because at Rank 5 it will deal 75% damage to undamaged foes, however, at the end of the day, taking the 50% damage from Shadow Presence whenever damaging enemies from behind is usually the better choice.
In general, if players have enough Darkness I recommend upgrading both of them and switching between them depending on what it is you are trying to complete.
As mentioned there are 5 Ranks of Fiery Presence, meaning that players can deal a maximum of 70% damage to undamaged enemies. Each rank will cost the following:
Rank 1: 10 Darkness
Rank 2: 15 Darkness
Rank 3: 20 Darkness
Rank 4: 25 Darkness
Rank 5: 30 Darkness
Total Cost: 100 Darkness
CHTHONIC VITALITY
Chthonic Vitality is going to be one of the best ways to restore health in the early game as it will passively provide players with 1 health for each rank every time they enter a chamber.
While 3 Health isn’t the most, this can especially help those who do not take regular amounts of damage inside of their escapes and admittedly I have been running Chthonic Vitality since unlocking it, though depending on how a player prefers to be healed this may not be the choice for you.
Chthonic Vitality is a great early game way to gain health though I will cover why shortly.
There are 3 ranks of Chthonic Vitality, meaning that players will be able to receive a maximum of 3 Health per chamber completed. Each rank will cost the following:
Rank 1: 10 Darkness
Rank 2: 20 Darkness
Rank 3: 40 Darkness
Total Cost: 70 Darkness
DARK REGENERATION
Dark Regeneration at first isn’t a great Talent as it can be difficult to obtain health this way as Dark Regeneration provides players with 30% health based on the amount of Darkness they acquire.
Essentially in the mid-game, Dark Regeneration sees a good spike, especially when players are repeating old content as players will get a good amount of Darkness from defeating Bosses. Basically, players will have to choose when they need health by selecting a chamber that drops Darkness and this isn’t always a possibility, especially if players need to select Boons due to them not receiving enough powerful ones.
Dark Regeneration is by far the more powerful upgrade for players, though it’s going to be dependent on how a player would like to play, making Chthonic Vitality better for those who do not want to think about Health and Dark Regeneration for those who are willing to put in a bit of thought every time they need to heal.
There are 2 ranks of Dark Regeneration, meaning that players will be able to receive a maximum of 60% for any Darkness obtained. Each rank will cost the following:
Rank 1: 30 Darkness
Rank 2: 60 Darkness
Total Cost: 90 Darkness
DEATH DEFIANCE
Death Defiance is the absolute best Talent to acquire and will significantly increase the chances of a player completing a run of Hades.
With each tier of Death Defiance players will be able to restore 50% of their Health whenever their Life Total is brought to 0.
While admittedly players are not going to want to rush their upgrades of Death Defiance, especially due to it’s immense cost, players will want to get at least 2 tiers by the mid-game in order to complete their first successful run of Hades… *cough* unless you’re very talented… you may be very talented. I… am not.
There are 3 ranks of Death Defiance, meaning that players will be able to respawn 3 times at 50% Health after dying. Each rank will cost the following:
Rank 1: 30 Darkness
Rank 2: 500 Darkness
Rank 3: 1000 Darkness
Total Cost: 1530 Darkness
STUBBORN DEFIANCE
Stubborn Defiance is interesting and may be the more “noob friendly” version of Death Defiance, though admittedly I’m not as much of a fan of it.
Essentially with Stubborn Defiance, players will have the chance to respawn with 30% health once per each chamber, meaning that a player can essentially wipe every encounter they complete once and then continue trekking along.
While this can be helpful, I have to admit that I usually have difficulty with a single boss rather than multiple chambers, if that makes sense. I personally prefer having multiple tries when using Death Defiance rather than running Stubborn Defiance, however, Stubborn Defiance is well worth the small cost when players are completing early runs of Hades.
I recommend running Stubborn Defiance first if you keep dying in multiple Chambers, though if you are dying in boss battles, think about using Death Defiance.
There is only 1 rank for Stubborn Defiance costing players 600 Darkness.
GREATER REFLEX
Greater Reflex is perfect for players who are running Boons that leave Status Curses behind whenever a player Dashes.
With Greater Reflex players will be able to Dash an extra time, not being the most overpowered Talent, however, being good enough to get a bit of extra damage or defense when necessary.
Players will only be able to get a single rank of Greater Reflex meaning that they will spend a total of 50 Darkness on this upgrade.
RUTHLESS REFLEX
The better Talent to run, though admittedly a bit harder to use is Ruthless Reflex.
With Ruthless Reflex players are looking forward to gaining 50% extra damage before they get hit also increasing their dodge chance for 2 seconds.
In my opinion, this is always the better skill to run, though admittedly it does come down to playstyle as Greater Reflex can be great for Athena shields or Status Curses that are placed on the ground.
Similar to Greater Reflex players will only be able to get a single rank of Ruthless Reflex, costing them 75 Darkness.
TALENTS THAT COST 5 CHTHONIC KEYS
BOILING BLOOD
Boiling Blood is a really great Talent in my opinion and will provide players with 10% damage per rank for their Attack and Special as long as an enemy has a Cast lodged inside of them.
As a player who focusses on alternating Casts and regular Attacks, Boiling Blood comes in particularly helpful.
Admittedly, if a player likes Casts that can be placed, such as Demeter’s Cast, Boiling Blood does nothing helpful, so this would be helpful to keep in mind.
Players will have the capability of ranking their Boiling Blood 5 times, essentially meaning that the player can safely secure 50% extra damage to an enemy when they have a Cast lodged in them and in my opinion is a great Talent to speed upgrade. The following are the Darkness costs for each rank:
Rank 1: 10 Darkness
Rank 2: 30 Darkness
Rank 3: 50 Darkness
Rank 4: 70 Darkness
Rank 5: 90 Darkness
Total Cost: 250 Darkness
ABYSSAL BLOOD
Abyssal Blood is a bit more of a defensive Talent for players and admittedly is one that I outright avoid.
With Abyssal Blood players will be able to reduce an enemy’s speed and damage by 6% for each rank when they have a Cast implanted in them.
Admittedly, I can see the use of Abyssal Blood in the late game Heats, however, this is really going to be based on a player’s preferences rather than outright being better than Boiling Blood.
With Abyssal Blood I strongly recommend that players use their Cast on multiple enemies as reducing more than one enemy’s damage and speed can be very useful, though admittedly it’s not going to be much even when a player has fully maxed out Abyssal Blood.
Abyssal Blood has 5 ranks meaning that a player will be able to reduce an enemy’s damage and speed by 30% by the end. The following are the Darkness costs for each rank:
Rank 1: 20 Darkness
Rank 2: 40 Darkness
Rank 3: 60 Darkness
Rank 4: 80 Darkness
Rank 5: 100 Darkness
Total Cost: 300 Darkness
INFERNAL SOUL
Infernal Soul is going to be one of the best upgrades players can get for their Cast as for each rank a player upgrades it to, players will be able to get another Cast use.
In my opinion, no matter what Boons a player runs and what upgrades a player gets, Infernal Soul is great, especially if players get a good hang of rotating in and out of using their Cast.
In my opinion, having more Casts is always helpful, especially if you are doing a run with a melee Weapon.
Infernal Soul can also be great when players combine their Cast with damage over time.
Infernal Soul can also be useful when combined with Talents that increase the amount of damage players deal to enemies with a Cast lodged in them or when enemies take a slow from the Cast.
Essentially I recommend this upgrade always just for the sheer amount of damage a player can output with it. I’m a player who always prioritizes damage over anything else, especially in Hades.
Infernal Soul can only be upgrade 2 times meaning that players can have a total of 3 Casts at maximum. The following are the Darkness costs for each rank:
Rank 1: 20 Darkness
Rank 2: 80 Darkness
Total Cost: 100 Darkness
STYGIAN SOUL
Stygian Soul is by far my least favourite Talent that players can unlock simply due to the fact that I don’t like the idea of having less Casts and don’t like the idea of Casts being automatically dislodged.
With Stygian Soul, essentially players will regenerate their Casts over time instead of waiting for them to be dislodged. While this does make it easier for players to actually have control over their Casts, it does mean that certain Boons are longer able to work. As I’m someone who actually likes the Boons that are available when players don’t have Stygian Soul I’m obviously a little bit biased to using other upgrades in comparison.
Admittedly with higher yields of Stygian Soul players will be able to retrieve their Cast more often than a player would without it, causing their DPS to increase, though I’m not sure that this outweighs having multiple casts from Infernal Soul.
Stygian Soul can be upgraded a maximum of 3 times, decreasing the amount of time it takes to retrieve your Cast by one second each time. The lowest amount of time it will take is 3 seconds.The following are the Darkness costs for each rank:
Rank 1: 0 Darkness
Rank 2: 60 Darkness
Rank 3: 120 Darkness
Total Cost: 100 Darkness
TALENTS THAT COST 10 CHTHONIC KEYS
DEEP POCKETS
Deep Pockets is a great beginner Talent to have, though should be traded out when players have a good hang of getting through their escapes in Hades.
Essentially with Deep Pockets players are able to start off with a bit of Charon’s Obol whenever they start an escape. Essentially, by the mid-to-late game players will want to acquire as much Charon’s Obol as they can in order to purchase rare Artifacts, but Deep Pockets can only give a maximum of 100 Charon’s Obol which it’s alternative can out beat.
I would recommend using Deep Pockets until you are able to get away with never buying any items from Charon’s Well or his shops as the alternative requires you to hoard as much Charon’s Obol as you can in order to gain interest (which I will cover shortly.)
Deep Pockets can be upgraded a maximum of 10 times and for each rank players will receive 10 Charon’s Obol per rank at the beginning of their Escape. The following are the Darkness costs for each rank:
Rank 1: 30 Darkness
Rank 2: 35 Darkness
Rank 3: 40 Darkness
Rank 4: 45 Darkness
Rank 5: 50 Darkness
Rank 6: 55 Darkness
Rank 7: 60 Darkness
Rank 8: 65 Darkness
Rank 9: 70 Darkness
Rank 10: 75 Darkness
Total Cost: 525 Darkness
GOLDEN TOUCH
While tricky to actually use properly, Golden Touch is the best way for players to get Charon’s Obol.
With Golden Touch players will receive 5% of the Charon’s Obol they have whenever they complete an Underworld region for each rank they have.
I commonly will gather about 150-300 Charon’s Obol in a typical run, though depending on what Chambers I actually get it can vary.
As Golden Touch has three ranks players will be able to receive a maximum of 15% of their total Charon’s Obol after every Underworld Region.The following are the Darkness costs for each rank:
Rank 1: 70 Darkness
Rank 2: 95 Darkness
Rank 3: 110 Darkness
Total Cost: 270 Darkness
THICK SKIN
Thick Skin is a great way for players to survive for a bit longer as it will provide players with extra life total.
For each rank of Thick Skin players obtain, players will receive 5 extra life total. Thick Skin can be ranked up a maximum of 10 times, meaning that players will receive a maximum of 50 Health when fully upgraded.
The following are the Darkness costs for each rank:
Rank 1: 40 Darkness
Rank 2: 45 Darkness
Rank 3: 50 Darkness
Rank 4: 55 Darkness
Rank 5: 60 Darkness
Rank 6: 65 Darkness
Rank 7: 70 Darkness
Rank 8: 75 Darkness
Rank 9: 80 Darkness
Rank 10: 85 Darkness
Total Cost: 625 Darkness
HIGH CONFIDENCE
With High Confidence players will be dealing a better amount of damage when they have 80% of their health or more remaining.
High Confidence is great for players who are doing speed runs to grind out Artifacts, especially because players can receive 5% extra damage for each rank they get, up to a maximum of 5 ranks.
While at it’s most, being 25% extra damage, players aren’t going to be dealing a whole lot of extra damage, this can be great when repeating easier maps to help ensure that mobs are defeated quickly and easily.
I strongly recommend boosting this bad boy up when you’re in your phase of resource grinding, especially if you’re repeating older Heats.
The following are the Darkness costs for each rank:
Rank 1: 50 Darkness
Rank 2: 100 Darkness
Rank 3: 150 Darkness
Rank 4: 200 Darkness
Rank 5: 250 Darkness
Total Cost: 750 Darkness
TALENTS THAT COST 20 CHTHONIC KEYS
PRIVILEGED STATUS
Privileged Status is going to be one of the most important Talents players can utilize in Hades and players will actually see a significant decrease in damage if they are unable to properly utilize Privileged Status.
With Privileged Status players will deal 20% damage against foes with at least two Status Curses on them for each rank.
While it may not seem like much to have 40% damage boosts, the lovely thing about Privileged Status is it’s pretty passive given the fact that players will want to stack their Status Curses as often as possible, though admittedly this may be a bit difficult to actually acquire in the early game if players are struggling to get enough Boons.
I would recommend using the alternative at first when Boons are more rare and then switch over, unless you have a good handle of getting Status Effect Boons. The following are the Darkness costs for each rank:
Rank 1: 50 Darkness
Rank 2: 500 Darkness
Total Cost: 550 Darkness
FAMILY FAVOURITE
Family Favourite sounds like a great Talent to have, but in my experience tends to be less powerful than Privileged Status, especially when players become more picky about which Olympian Gods they ask for Favours.
Essentially the way that it works is players will receive 2.5% extra damage for each different Olympian God players have Boons for, for each rank.
Being that a player can rank this up twice they can get 5% damage per Olympian.
My issue with this Talent is the fact that I usually stack a maximum of 4 gods in the end game, meaning that it will deal much less damage than Privileged Status, though if a player is not picky or choosy they can stack a decent amount of damage from them.
I strongly recommend using this for the early game, especially if players are struggling to get Darkness, though I would always recommend Privileged Status over it.
The following are the Darkness costs for each rank:
Rank 1: 50 Darkness
Rank 2: 150 Darkness
Total Cost: 200 Darkness
OLYMPIAN FAVOUR
Olympian Favour is a great early game Talent to have a hold on as it will help ensure that players get a good amount of Boons that are worth it to have.
Essentially with each rank players will receive a 1% chance to get a Boon that is Rare.
Players will have to pay 50 Darkness for each rank, having a chance to increase their chance to 40% and costing them 2,000 total Darkness.
I recommend this for players struggling to deal damage, however, I often recommend swapping it out for Dark Foresight later on, unless Artifact grinding.
No matter what, it’s a good idea to always have Olympian Favour maxed out for whenever you do speed runs.
DARK FORESIGHT
Dark Foresight is usually my go to as it increases the chance of getting Boons, Hammers, Obols or Poms as their room rewards.
While this may not seem like a big deal, this greatly increases the chance that players will be able to power up their character to be strong enough to complete later Heats, especially if players are not resource farming.
If players are in search of gaining Artifacts, I strongly recommend using Olympian Favour, though this may reduce the amount of Charon’s Obol you get.
For each rank of Dark Foresight players will receive a 2% chance to get the Gold Laurel rewards, up to a maximum of 20%.
Each rank will cost 150 Darkness and will cost a maximum of 1,500 Darkness for a total of 10 ranks.
TALENTS THAT COST 30 CHTHONIC KEYS
GODS’ PRIDE
Gods’ Pride is my preferred choice for Talents at this tier as it will add a 1% boost to each Boon for it to be Epic.
Players will be able to upgrade Gods’ Pride up to 20 times, gaining a total of 20% chance for an Epic Boon.
Gods’ Pride is a bit of a game changer allowing players to farm a good amount of Epic Boons to complete mid-game Heats in Hades.
Players will have to fork over 100 Darkness for each rank, costing 2,000 Darkness total for all 20 ranks.
GODS’ LEGACY
In my opinion, I’m not a huge fan of Gods’ Legacy simply because it has a lower chance of spawning in Boons.
Essentially with Gods’ Legacy players will receive a 1% chance to get Legendary or Duo Boons, which is great when farming Duo Boons, but admittedly it isn’t great in the long run since it can only be ranked 10 times.
For each rank players will have to pay 250 Darkness to max it out at 10 ranks costing them 2,500 Darkness.
Honestly, 10% is significantly less than the 20% you would get from Gods’ Pride, even if it does mean only Epic Boons.
For me, personally, this is a “only when I’m trying to get Duo Boons” kind of Talent.
FATED AUTHORITY
Fated Authority, in my opinion, is a bit of a weird choice simply because I’m ready to take any god’s Boon as long as it has a high tier.
With Fated Authority players will be able to reroll any reward for the next chamber using a dice.
Admittedly, with Fated Authority players will have a good amount of chances to reroll as players can purchase a maximum of 8 dice.
Essentially if players want to use a reroll they can do so by walking up to the room reward after completing an Encounter and clicking Reroll. Players can get any room reward and can alternate it as often as they need if they have enough dice.
While realistically Fated Authority can be perfect for selecting what Boons you really want or for combining multiple gods together, I prefer being able to change the skills given because there are some skills I literally can’t handle.
There are 8 tiers of Fated Authority, each providing a player with a single reroll for each of the tiers.
The following are the Darkness costs for each rank:
Rank 1: 500 Darkness
Rank 2: 750 Darkness
Rank 3: 1000 Darkness
Rank 4: 1250 Darkness
Rank 5: 1500 Darkness
Rank 6: 1750 Darkness
Rank 7: 2000 Darkness
Rank 8: 2250 Darkness
Total Cost: 11,000 Darkness
FATED PERSUASION
Fated Persuasion is usually my go to Talent, as mentioned, due to the fact that you can at least reroll a skill that’s being offered to you.
There are many situations I find myself in where a god gives me 3 skills I’m not a huge fan of, causing me to want to reroll.
Admittedly, even when I reroll there are sometimes where a skill is still pretty trash, however, I still find this a bit better than Fated Authority.
The choice is going to depend on what a player is looking for, so make this choice based on personal preference.
Luckily for players, they will be able to use Fated Persuasion on Boons and on rewards from the Well of Charon, meaning that a player will be able to use this on speed runs in hopes of acquiring rewards from the Well of Charon that will boost the amount of Artifacts a player can collect.
There are only 4 tiers of Fated Persuasion, making it a bit less powerful than Fated Authority, though in my opinion this is pretty worth it.
The following are the Darkness costs for each rank:
Rank 1: 1000 Darkness
Rank 2: 2000 Darkness
Rank 3: 3000 Darkness
Rank 4: 4000 Darkness
Total Cost: 10,000 Darkness
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